Notes and Gleanings. 237 



Bulb Cases : Growth of Bulbs in Water, Moss, and Sand. — One of 

 the most satisfactory modes of growing bulbs in the house is in a bulb-case. By 

 this very simple contrivance, all the objections to plants in pots are obviated, 

 and the plants thrive much better. 



The bulb-case is a simple oblong table, as long as the window where you' 

 wish to grow the bulbs is wide, and wide enough to accommodate three medi- 

 um-sized pots in each cross-row. A very good size is four and a half feet in 

 length by two feet in width in the clear, so as to hold three rows of eight pots 

 each. Let the table be hollow, and eight to ten inches deep, all thoroughly 

 joined together, and well coated with white lead on the inside, particularly around 

 the joints. Into this table fit a zinc pan of the same depth, with wire handles 

 which turn down inside at each end. The prettiest style of table for a parlor is 

 of oiled black walnut, with turned legs, panelled sides, and as high as the sill 

 of the window. It should be fitted with strong castors, that it may run easily, 

 and be turned if the plants grow one-sided. If any other form is employed, — 

 and we give only the above form and dimensions as being those most simply 

 made, — the only care is to see that it is so proportioned that there is no waste 

 room on the inside ; that is, that it may accommodate a certain number of pots 

 without small bare places. 



If the table is made circular, the whole top may turn on a pivot. After the 

 bulbs are potted in October, they should be put in a dark cellar, and moderately 

 watered for three weeks, to encourage the growth of the roots. When the pots 

 are filled with roots, or when they touch the sides of the pot (which may easily be 

 ascertained by inverting the pot, giving the edge a sharp rap, when the ball will 

 come out entire, may be examined, and may then be replaced in the pot without 

 injury to the plant), the pots may be brought from the cellar, and placed in the 

 bulb-case. Fill the case with pots, and put common moss obtained in the woods, or 

 sphagnum from the meadows, into all the interstices, and as high as the top of 

 the pots ; then cover all the pots about an half an inch with the rich green moss 

 which may be found on shady rocks in oak-woods. The shoots of the bulbs will 

 soon push through the moss if the table is placed in a sunny window ; and, if the 

 moss is kept well watered, we shall have a bed of hyacinths in a garden of moss. 



Qf course, with such constant watering, much water will accumulate in the bot- 

 tom of the pan ; but this will produce no bad effects, the roots of the plants in 

 time running through the holes in the bottom of the pots, and luxuriating in the 

 wet moss. The plants placed in the case early in November will bloom about 

 Christmas. As soon as the bloom fades, the pots should be taken from the case, 

 placed in a light cellar, watered to encourage the growth of the foliage, and their 

 places supplied with other pots brought from the cellar. As the plants will not 

 all bloom at once, the case will always, by thus renewing, have plants in bloom 

 from Christmas to April. 



To maintain this succession, a stock of from seventy-five to a hundred bulbs 

 should be potted ; and some attention should be paid to the period of flowering, 

 as some varieties bloom very early, and others always bloom late, and cannot be 

 forced. The early-blooming varieties should be brought forward in early winter, 

 while the later should be left in the cellar till February. 



